Today in Digital Marketing - Nobody Move, There’s Bots on the Floor 🎵

Episode Date: February 16, 2023

The bots are getting smarter. TikTok copies a failed startup. Shopify's still in the red. Why Uber's car ads are killing it. And pour one out for the granddaddy of web browsers. ✅ Follow Us on Social Media If you like our podcast, you'll love The Daily Upside!The Daily Upside is a free marketing and business newsletter that covers the most important stories in a style that's engaging, insightful, and fun. It delivers quality insights and surfaces unique stories you won't read elsewhere.Sign up free here ✨ GO PREMIUM! ✨   ✓ Ad-free episodes  ✓ Story links in show notes  ✓ Deep-dive weekend editions  ✓ Better audio quality  ✓ Live event replays  ✓ Audio chapters  ✓ Earlier release time  ✓ Exclusive marketing discounts  ✓ and more! Check it out: todayindigital.com/premiumfeed 🤝 Join our Slack: todayindigital.com/slack📰 Get the Newsletter: Click Here (daily or weekly)Or just The Top Story each day on LinkedIn. ✉️ Contact Us: Email or Send Voicemail⚾ Pitch Us a Story: Fill in this form🎙️ Be a Guest on Our Show: Fill in this form📈 Reach Marketers: Book Ad🗞️ Classified Ads: Book Now🙂 Share: Tweet About Us • Rate and Review------------------------------------🎒UPGRADE YOUR SKILLS• Inside Google Ads with Jyll Saskin Gales• Google Ads for Beginners with Jyll Saskin Gales• Foxwell Slack Group and Courses Today in Digital Marketing is hosted by Tod Maffin and produced by engageQ digital on the traditional territories of the Snuneymuxw First Nation on Vancouver Island, Canada. Associate Producer: Steph Gunn. Ad Coordination: RedCircle. Production Coordinator: Sarah Guild. Theme Composer: Mark Blevis. Music rights: Source AudioSome links in these show notes may provide affiliate revenue to us. Our Sponsors:* Check out Kinsta: https://kinsta.comPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It is Thursday, February 16th. Today, the bots are getting smarter, TikTok copies a failed startup, Shopify is still in the red, why Uber's car ads are killing it, and pour one out for the granddaddy of web browsers. I'm Todd Mathen. That's ahead, today in Digital Marketing. One of the many unfortunate rites of passage as a digital marketer is being locked out of your social media account. The platforms, meta especially, have a hair trigger on locking people out. And it's mostly because of the millions of bot accounts that constantly try to hack their way in. This week, The Guardian reported about some devious software that's behind many of these bots. The software is called Advanced Impact Media Solutions,

or AIMS, which controls more than 30,000 fake social media profiles that can be used to spread disinformation at scale and speed on platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Telegram, Gmail, Instagram, YouTube, Amazon, and even Airbnb. Software is said to be written by a group called Team George, a hacking and disinformation unit for hire.

According to the Guardian report, the group's leader told undercover journalists that each avatar is given a multifaceted digital backstory. He says these profiles mimic human behavior and their bots were powered by AI. Other techniques are also used to make the profiles more credible and avoid the bot detection systems developed by the platforms. The group's leader noted that his bots were linked to SMS verified phone numbers and some even have Amazon accounts with credit cards. Ames also has different groups of avatars with various nationalities and languages.

In any case, it is evident that avatars peddling propaganda are using stolen images of real people to do so. Furthermore, the group's leader said that they sold access to their software to unnamed intelligence agencies, political parties, and corporate clients. Through an investigation using AIMS-linked avatars revealed by Team George, reporters were able to trace their activity across the internet, identifying their involvement in what appeared to be mostly commercial disputes in more than 20 countries like the UK, the US, and Canada. The Guardian reported that Twitter declined to comment, but Meta actually took down AIMS-linked bots on its platform this week after journalists shared a sample of the fake accounts with the company. Is TikTok turning into HQ trivia now? In its push to increase live content on the app, TikTok is launching an HQ Copycat Trivia Contest, which will be sponsored by Lionsgate and its upcoming John Wick movie. Similar to HQ, the company has enlisted a live

host for trivia. TikTok influencer James Henry will host the trivia rounds, and the company says players will be able to interact with them. Users must be 18 years old and in the U.S. to participate in the multiple-choice trivia rounds, which will be live streamed daily on the official TikTok account from February 22nd to the 26th. TikTok is luring players with a $500,000 cash prize pool that will be split between winners. In Shopify's earnings report released yesterday, the company posted a 25% year-over-year increase in revenue in the final quarter of 2022. But despite that strong Q4, a slowing revenue forecast for this year wasn't what the market wanted to hear.

In Q1, the e-commerce giant anticipates revenue growth in the high teens on a year-over-year basis. In response, Shopify's share price has fallen. While Shopify's business continues to grow despite challenging market conditions and e-commerce slowdowns, its fourth quarter results still pale in comparison with its COVID-19 highs.

The company posted a net loss of over $620 million in Q4. Overall, Shopify earned almost $6 billion in revenue last year and recorded a net loss of about $3.5 billion. Ridesharing companies are looking for a piece of your ad budget. The Wall Street Journal reporting today that both Uber and Lyft are claiming big gains for their advertising businesses in recent months. For Uber, increased ad revenue was a key growth driver in the last quarter. The company's CEO is saying that more than 315,000 businesses ran ads with Uber in the fourth quarter, nearly doubling its advertisers from a year prior.

He added that Uber is still targeting $1 billion in annual ad revenue by 2024. Lyft didn't discuss its ad business in its most recent earnings report, but its chief business officer told the journal that the company's ad revenue growth has exceeded its goals. He said Lyft ad revenue increased nearly seven times in the fourth quarter year over year. The report also noted that the company's ad prices can offer a glimpse at their respective positions in the market. A recent advertising exchange disclosed details of both companies' offerings. Lyft charges $2 per 1,000 consumer impressions for its rooftop display ads, while Uber charges $5 per 1,000 impressions for a comparable product. One analyst suggested that Uber has a significant advantage comparing its ad growth strategy to that of Amazon.

Do you have business insurance? If not, how would you pay to recover from a cyber attack, fire damage, theft, or a lawsuit? No business or profession is risk-free. Without insurance, your assets are at risk from major financial losses, data breaches, and natural disasters. Get customized coverage today starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. YouTube really wants you to create shorts. The company is adding several features to its TikTok clone to boost engagement. First, brands and creators can now add short clips as comment replies in stream, which is very similar, of course, to

the very popular TikTok video reply option. The feature will be rolling out on iOS this week with Android to follow. The platform is also adding the ability for subscribers of a channel to become a member of the channel from the short speed with a new join button that will be displayed to subscribers on both Android and iOS. Finally, in terms of analytics, YouTube is also adding data stories for posts, which will provide more insight into how your content is performing. LinkedIn has published its 2023 Workplace Learning Report. The report looks at the key shifts in learning and development and how organizations are shifting their budgets this year. LinkedIn's data shows that more than 90% of organizations are concerned about employee retention,

with many seeing learning and development opportunities as key to keeping staff. The report also looks at the most in-demand skills based on LinkedIn job listings, as well as the most in-demand skills by job role. There are also specific insights into how younger workers view development elements and benefits, as well as tips on how to maximize your business efforts this year. The report provides a lot of detail. It covers a pretty wide range of trends. A link to download the full report is available in our premium newsletter today, which you can subscribe to by tapping the link in the show notes, or you can find it by searching LinkedIn's 2023 Workplace Learning Report. And that will bring us to the lightning round. YouTube CEO is stepping down after nine years at the helm. In a letter to employees, she said she was leaving to start a new chapter focused on her family, health, and personal projects.

She will be replaced by her longtime lieutenant, Neil Mohan. The founder of Reddit's WallStreetBet subreddit is now suing the social media platform, accusing the company of wrongly banning him from moderating the community and undermining his trademark rights. He's seeking at least a million dollars in damages for breach of contract and trademark infringement and a ban on the platform's use of Wall Street bets, unless it reinstates him as senior moderator of the subreddit. Apple is reportedly working on how to read back iMessages in the sender's voice. iOS users can, of course, already send audio recordings in iMessage or have Siri read text messages back. But a new patent describes a way to have the device read the text message in the sender's voice instead of Siri using AI. And Microsoft has finally, sadly, tragically ended Internet Explorer. Yes, after 28 years in dedicated service,

the company has permanently disabled the desktop version of the web browser on certain versions of Windows 10. Now, when users try to access Explorer, they will be redirected to Edge. I know a lot of people prefer to read their news as opposed to listen to the podcast. If that's something you'd like to do from time to time, we have two options for you. The first is our LinkedIn newsletter.

It's called The Top Story. It sends you our top digital marketing story each day directly to your inbox and into your LinkedIn feed. You can sign up for that at todayindigital.com slash top story. It is completely free, of course. There's a link in the show notes. And you can get this podcast as a daily email newsletter, if you prefer, complete with images, charts, related videos, links to dive deeper.

There's a free tier for that as well. You'll get an issue on that tier every Friday, but the main newsletter is daily. And in fact, it comes out about an hour before the podcast drops. Just go to todayindigital.com slash newsletter to sign up or tap the link in the show notes. I'm heading out of town to do some client visits tomorrow. Our associate producer, the intrepid Stepgun, will be here tomorrow.

And I will see you on Monday.